Sport

Marine coach expects response after cup defeat

SUPERMARINE first team coach Sean Millwaters believes his side will “bounce back hard” from their cup defeat last Saturday.

Supermarine went down 13-10 in their Southern Counties Senior Vase semi-final against Gosford All Blacks but Millwaters is backing his side to come back with a win at Melksham in Dorset & Wilts 1 North this weekend.

“We’ve played them twice already this season and won both. We beat them in the cup back in September and by a point in the league, both at their place,” said Millwaters.

Despite not getting the result on Saturday, Supermarine put in a strong effort in the game’s closing stages and came close to getting the win. Millwaters is now keen for his side to move on and concentrate on the league, as his side currently sit fifth in the table. Marine are bidding for an instant return to Southern Counties rugby and the Marine boss still maintains hope of promotion.

“If we win our game in hand that will put us in the top three, so we’re going to be there or thereabouts,” he said.

The Supermarine coach is aware how crucial every point is going to be in the remaining months of the season.

“We have to go for the four-try win and get the bonus points,” he said.

“We came away from the weekend feeling good, despite the loss. Everyone is available, we’ve had two training sessions this week to prepare and get ready to go for Melksham.”

In South West 1 East action, Swindon travel to Reading to face the side directly below them in the table.

“The two teams can swap places if we don’t get a result in this one, so it’s a very important game,” Swindon skipper Adam Westall said.

“They are a good side but we really have to put our marker down now and make a statement because we need to be pushing up the league table in the second half of the season.

“When we get into February we have a spell where we have four home games on the bounce so we need to get ourselves into a good position so we are able to take advantage of that when they come along.

“What we really want is some good weather so that we can play a bit more rugby on some good pitches but that doesn’t look like happening any time soon so we need to give it our best.”